In case you thought getting rewarded for failure was an incentive program reserved for the highest levels of the Bush administration, two words: sadly no.
According to a report in today's WashingtonPost.com, the policy extends - feign surprise here - across the breadth of the defense contracting business, where shoddy work is not merely ignored or glossed over. It's actually rewarded in the form of performance bonuses. From today's article:
In its study of 93 contracts, the GAO found that the Defense Department paid out $8 billion in special award and incentive fees, often without regard to performance. In many cases the projects were behind schedule, over budget and experiencing significant technical problems.
But don't worry -- the best and brightest minds at the Pentagon are all over this. They're now taking the extraordinary step of tightening the award criteria - so that failed technology, missed deadlines, and financial overruns might, maybe, could possibly be considered grounds for disqualification from the performance-bonus pool.
The Pentagon is toughening up its policy of awarding bonuses to defense contractors. From now on, they will have to do at least a satisfactory job to qualify for the extra money.
In fact, the Pentagon's second-ranking procurement official James Finley is getting downright hard-assed about it: "Clearly," he says, "satisfactory performance should earn considerably less than excellent performance, other wise the motivation to achieve excellence is negated.... Performance that is less than satisfactory is not entitled to any award fee."
Now, where I work, you get a performance bonus if you exceed the standards of what is normally part of your job description. But at the Pentagon -- even AFTER they tighten up their stringent standards - a contractor can still get a bonus for doing mediocre work.
All I can think is to send out a call to Chris Rock.
Mr. Rock, please report to the Pentagon with an updated version of your 'Niggas vs. Black People' routine:
"Contractas always want some credit for some shit they supposed to do. A contracta will say some shit like, "I delivered my project on time." That's what you're SUPPOSED TO DO, you dumb mothafucka. What are you braggin' about? What kind of ignorant shit is that?"